Singer and musician Jimmie Rodgers, who rose to national fame through his recordings in the late 1920s and early 1930s, is profoundly connected to a uniquely American form of popular music—country. Since the 1950s, he has been known as the "father of country music" to musicians and fans alike, and his records have continued to sell decades after his death, solidifying a national and international following that was still alive in the 1990s. Rodgers' unique amalgamation of folk blues, popular, and hillbilly music disseminated previously marginal, regional styles to national and international audiences, and he was one of the first nationally recognized musicians to feature and popularize the guitar in his recordings.

Considered a "popular" or "hillbilly" artist in his lifetime, Rodgers was officially canonized as the "father of country music" at a memorial celebration in Meridian, Mississippi, on the twentieth anniversary of...